Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Statesmen -- Great Britain -- Biography
No man has been better known, so far as personal appearance was
concerned, to the general English public than Lord Salisbury. He has
been as well known as Mr. Gladstone himself, and one cannot say more
than that. He was a frequent walker in St. James's Park and other places
of common resort in the neighborhood of the Houses of Parliament. Every
one knew the tall, broad, stooping figure with the thick head of hair,
the bent brows, and the careless, shabby costume. No statesman of his
time was more indifferent than Lord Salisbury to the dictates of fashion
as regarded dress and deportment. He was undoubtedly one of the
worst-dressed men of his order in London. In this peculiarity he formed
a remarkable contrast to Lord Beaconsfield, who down to the very end of
his life took care to be always dressed according to the most recent
dictates of fashion. All this was strictly in keeping with Lord
Salisbury's character and temperament. The world had to take him as he
was--he could never bring himself to act any part for the sake of its
effect upon the public. My own impression is that when he was removed by
the decree of fate into the House of Lords and taken away from the
active, thrilling life of the House of Commons, he felt himself excluded
from his congenial field of political action and had but little interest
in the game of politics any more. He does not seem destined to a place
in the foremost rank of English Prime Ministers, even of English
Conservative Prime Ministers. But his is beyond all question a
picturesque, a deeply interesting, and even a commanding figure in
English political history, and the world will have reason to regret if
his voluntary retirement from the position of Prime Minister should mean
also his retirement from the field of political life.
[Illustration: Photograph copyright by Elliott & Fry
THE EARL OF ROSEBERY]
LORD ROSEBERY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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